Derived from the post “Point de la Mort: World War II,” I developed artistically rendered this photograph to alter its tone and pave the way for a future use, perhaps as a book or short story cover (War at Our Doorstep, for example). The iMac’s Preview application has been invaluable for such tweaking.

“During World War 2, these cannons were more than menacing. Having significant range to fire upon the beaches a substantial few miles away, the man operating this machine of death could be almost completely disconnected from the battle at hand.” This render was cropped and meddled with until it had the color and tone I had been hoping to establish.

A rendered shadow of a horse and its rider. Albeit it could use a touch-up here and there.

I was searching through my photography and video collections, in hopes of finding something worth posting (and catching up with what posts I’ve missed in the postaday2012 challenge), when I had the idea of capturing a frame in one video, upon seeing the shadow of a horse and I. With GIMP, I added some extra effects to bring the graphic “to life,” although not without the consistent combo of CTRL | CMD + Z (undo). The scattered bits of pixel are due to a mishap with the “magic wand.”

“We found this tree while searching the mountainside for our kayaking destination. I struck me as peculiar and I decided to snap a pic while stumbling over the steep, rock-strewn slope.” And boy was it steep at times, or perhaps it only seemed so, since I was attempting to take decent compositions along the way while keeping up with our party. Note the blur in the upper-left hand corner, tis’ evidence of my… “gracefulness.”

The first imagery presented in my novel is that of crashing waves (and a rude awakening to boot). Within the prologue, it sets a mysterious tone for the novel, albeit does not come to fruition until the seventh chapter. It was also the first passage I turned to when I began systematically revising my novel for stylistic disruptions.

Below are photographs I’ve taken on my travels, any guess as to where? Or what [type of] body of water? The answer may seem surprising.

A beautiful portrait of the interweaving hues of blue, lapping against the shore with great tranquility.

This crop is my favorite of the two, albeit not the one used for my “working cover,” due to size restrictions. The scope of the waves, and the flow of the water is much more comprehensive.

The location was by far not the most striking, as Oregon, Ireland, or France. Although I attained some nice compositions, with some slight altering to return them to their intended beauty.

Often times, when a photographic gem presents itself, it must be captured in the spur-of-the-moment, during which the adjustment of the lens, exposure, and whatnot will result in the loss of a moving subject. A few days ago I provided a glimpse at what little steps I take to restore compositions to their intended beauty.

Below is the original (albeit cropped and resized for space preservation and artistic purposes) version of the Courageous Takeoff, as well as the modified version which was included in the Goose~ology post.

Unaltered with exception to cropping, resizing, and reformatting (JPEG – PNG). No touch-ups.

The evening light dances upon the waters as a duck awaits its companions.

A mallard surveys the tranquil waters.

The celebration tonight was a tremendous success and I had just enough time to go canoeing with a friend and engage in some photography. The lake where these ducks live is, unfortunately, filled with pollution from the city streets. Garbage and toxic chemicals make the place rather unhandsome for fishing, and an odious habitation for the wildwife.